Apologies I have been neglecting this poor blog.
We are finally experiencing some good weather in the UK, great for the kids as with hats and sunscreen on they are free to race around the garden and get rid of all their energy.
Lucy has had a breakthrough and realised that going to the toilet isn't as bad as she first thought, she is by no means consistent but I can finally begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel and hopefully an end to buying nappies money sink!
It has become apparent however that Matthew and Lucy are both very competitive in every way. They want the same toy, to sit in the same space and be the first to do everything and anything. This has resulted in some very physical fights which inevitably end in tears, usually for both as one is relegated to the trauma of time out and the other is left demonstrating their injuries to me!
This is also true at bedtime, we aim for a staggered bed time so that disturbance is kept to a minimum. Lucy goes first, then about ten-fifteen minutes later Matthew and about an hour after that Lucy, the problem at the moment is that Lucy is often still awake and yelling when Heather goes to bed, part of this will be resolved when we move and they are no longer sharing a room! The reason seems to be that if Lucy has a nap she simply isn't ready to go to bed! It seems anything over twenty minutes and trouble results.
In an attempt to curtail some of the bad behaviour we had a discussion at dinner time yesterday. We explained that we weren't happy and that it amounted to bullying, and so I said to make sure the children understood;
'Matthew can you explain what a bully is?'
His reply 'It goes baa'
Apparently it is some kind of sheep and so at that point we gave up.
Still tomorrow I have a day off and I can't wait, I am off to a spa for a day of relaxation and pampering and maybe some writing, I have been trying to set out my writing goals for the summer to myself. Running seems to be going well at the moment, the next step is to increase the frequency of runs.
Monday, May 24, 2010
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Starving
It has come to my attention that Matthew must be starving. For a long time he has made it his mission in life to grab food at every possible opportunity. As soon as breakfast is finished he is worrying about lunch and then dinner and, of course, the snacks along the way. He has devised a number of ways to climb up to the fruit bowl and empty it of its contents. If there are any stray sweets, drinks or biscuits hidden in the car, it is his duty to search and destroy!
In fact I think the dog has started to copy his swoop and run tactics as she too has started sidling up to see what she can grab and then run off as fast as she can. We had to laugh at the weekend. Matthew came racing in with what looked like food in his hand.
'What's that?'
'Nothing,' he said still munching.
He had only gone beheaded an Aurora eraser, so eager was he to eat he had grabbed it off the side, thinking it was something tasty and bitten it before he had registered what it was!
In other news Lucy is driving us all mad singing Twinkle Twinkle at the top of her voice, only she has changed the words somewhat;
Winkle winkle, ittle star,
How I wonder how are you
Up above the sky high
like a how are you?
Some work to do there methinks!
In fact I think the dog has started to copy his swoop and run tactics as she too has started sidling up to see what she can grab and then run off as fast as she can. We had to laugh at the weekend. Matthew came racing in with what looked like food in his hand.
'What's that?'
'Nothing,' he said still munching.
He had only gone beheaded an Aurora eraser, so eager was he to eat he had grabbed it off the side, thinking it was something tasty and bitten it before he had registered what it was!
In other news Lucy is driving us all mad singing Twinkle Twinkle at the top of her voice, only she has changed the words somewhat;
Winkle winkle, ittle star,
How I wonder how are you
Up above the sky high
like a how are you?
Some work to do there methinks!
Monday, April 26, 2010
Training
This week we have mostly been focussing on training.
Firstly we are trying to train Lucy to use the potty. She knows what to do but refuses to do it. On Sunday I sat on the floor while she sat on the potty. I encouraged her, even tried bribery all to no avail, in the end I gave up and put her in a nappy, within seconds it was full! She is quite happy to sit on the toilet or the potty but even so she refuses to 'perform.' I am hoping that when she does manage to go, the fuss that we will make will encourage her to continue to go, we just need that first breakthrough.
Secondly I have decided to train myself. It has been an ambition of mine for sometime to run the London marathon. I have applied twice but failed to get in, I am hoping that it will be third time lucky and that in 2011 I will be running. The last two times I applied I admit I was fairly casual about the whole thing. This year I have accepted that as I won't find out if I have got into run then until October I had better start training, just in case. So on Sunday after we took the kids swimming I ran back home, 2.5 miles in 30 minutes. I am paying for it ever so slightly today as my legs are still a little stiff but I am sure that if I do it often enough it'll get easier.
Thirdly we have been trying to teach the children to walk on the path rather than on the newly laid turf. It seems that instead they would rather trample the good grass into mush than walk a few extra steps. I am thankful for the warm weather however as it is providing the children with an opportunity to play outside, get plenty of fresh air and learn new skills without dragging half of the garden back in with them on the bottom of their shoes!
Heather has finally had one of her dreams come true, she has been horse riding, she has been in love with horses for as long as I can remember, she had a little ride on a horse on her third birthday but to get proper lessons most schools demand the age of six. I have however been able to secure lessons for her at a local school which takes children from the age of four. We had to get some boots before she could ride and when we visited the vast shop nearby to get them we were also greeted with an Olympic rider who was doing a signing. When we got to the stables and Heather was put on the pony and shown how to trot I marvelled at how confident she looked, and the smile never left her face for the entire lesson. All of us seem to be embarking on new phases, Matthew is learning tennis and football and so I guess now we'll see who managed to stick with their training their longest, and hopefully reach a goal.
Firstly we are trying to train Lucy to use the potty. She knows what to do but refuses to do it. On Sunday I sat on the floor while she sat on the potty. I encouraged her, even tried bribery all to no avail, in the end I gave up and put her in a nappy, within seconds it was full! She is quite happy to sit on the toilet or the potty but even so she refuses to 'perform.' I am hoping that when she does manage to go, the fuss that we will make will encourage her to continue to go, we just need that first breakthrough.
Secondly I have decided to train myself. It has been an ambition of mine for sometime to run the London marathon. I have applied twice but failed to get in, I am hoping that it will be third time lucky and that in 2011 I will be running. The last two times I applied I admit I was fairly casual about the whole thing. This year I have accepted that as I won't find out if I have got into run then until October I had better start training, just in case. So on Sunday after we took the kids swimming I ran back home, 2.5 miles in 30 minutes. I am paying for it ever so slightly today as my legs are still a little stiff but I am sure that if I do it often enough it'll get easier.
Thirdly we have been trying to teach the children to walk on the path rather than on the newly laid turf. It seems that instead they would rather trample the good grass into mush than walk a few extra steps. I am thankful for the warm weather however as it is providing the children with an opportunity to play outside, get plenty of fresh air and learn new skills without dragging half of the garden back in with them on the bottom of their shoes!
Heather has finally had one of her dreams come true, she has been horse riding, she has been in love with horses for as long as I can remember, she had a little ride on a horse on her third birthday but to get proper lessons most schools demand the age of six. I have however been able to secure lessons for her at a local school which takes children from the age of four. We had to get some boots before she could ride and when we visited the vast shop nearby to get them we were also greeted with an Olympic rider who was doing a signing. When we got to the stables and Heather was put on the pony and shown how to trot I marvelled at how confident she looked, and the smile never left her face for the entire lesson. All of us seem to be embarking on new phases, Matthew is learning tennis and football and so I guess now we'll see who managed to stick with their training their longest, and hopefully reach a goal.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Guest Writer
I don't often feature guest writers in the blog but today I am making an exception.
Yesterday without any prompting Heather sat and wrote without being asked and without any help (hence a few errors in spelling and so on) the following;
The Rabbit and the Dragon
Once there was a rabbit called Amalie. One day she went for a stroll through the wood. Now let me tell you about Amalie. She had black hair and a lilac dress and she had a pet bird. It was beautiful it was a bluebird called buttercup. On Tuesday she had some gardening to do so she did it. She went for a stroll in the wood on Saturday 1st August. She was going to the park to have a picnic and she brought it in a basket. There was cake, biscuits, an apple two bananas a lollypop grapes strawberries and raspberries, a few cherrys some ham and butter rolls, a gingerbread man a packet of smarties plums and a drink of orange juice. She found some flowers. She picked dandelions buttercups poppys roses primroses bluebells and sunflowers. She picked them all. She put them in her basket and set off. Along the way she met a dragon. The dragon blew some hot fire and said ‘little bunny solve this puzzle to go through if you don’t you will get eaten. What is 100+100?’ She thought and she thought but she could not answer and you know what that means she was eaten. A prince rabbit saw all this and with his sowd cut the dragons chest.
It fell to the ground it was dead. Amalies head popped out and they instantly fell in love they were marryed next day and lived happily ever after.
Written by Heather Louise Trevelyan on Monday 12th April 2010 aged 5 and 8 months.
Spring Summer Autumn Winter
All about Spring
S is for the sun shining in the sky
P is for poppy pink and waking up
R is for rows of roses
I like cherry blossom all nice and pink
N is for nightingales singing in the trees
G is for people playing in the garden
That is what spring in about
All about Summer
S is for sunflowers growing in the sun
U is for us injoying the weather
M is for me watching the sun
M is for Matthew playing in the garden
E is for eating outside together
R is for going riding on our bikes.
Thats what Summer is all about
All about Autumn
A is for animals eating leaves
U is for umbrellas in the rain
T is for trees losing leaves
U is for umbrellas going up and down
M is for many leaves falling off trees
N is for navy blue raindrops
Thats what Autumn is all about
All about Winter
W is for wooly clothes to keep you warm
I is for iscicles everywhere
N is for night time coming early
T is for trees covered with snow
E is for everybody playing in the snow
R is for roads being closed because of the snow
Thats what winter is all about
Proud, me, yes!
Yesterday without any prompting Heather sat and wrote without being asked and without any help (hence a few errors in spelling and so on) the following;
The Rabbit and the Dragon
Once there was a rabbit called Amalie. One day she went for a stroll through the wood. Now let me tell you about Amalie. She had black hair and a lilac dress and she had a pet bird. It was beautiful it was a bluebird called buttercup. On Tuesday she had some gardening to do so she did it. She went for a stroll in the wood on Saturday 1st August. She was going to the park to have a picnic and she brought it in a basket. There was cake, biscuits, an apple two bananas a lollypop grapes strawberries and raspberries, a few cherrys some ham and butter rolls, a gingerbread man a packet of smarties plums and a drink of orange juice. She found some flowers. She picked dandelions buttercups poppys roses primroses bluebells and sunflowers. She picked them all. She put them in her basket and set off. Along the way she met a dragon. The dragon blew some hot fire and said ‘little bunny solve this puzzle to go through if you don’t you will get eaten. What is 100+100?’ She thought and she thought but she could not answer and you know what that means she was eaten. A prince rabbit saw all this and with his sowd cut the dragons chest.
It fell to the ground it was dead. Amalies head popped out and they instantly fell in love they were marryed next day and lived happily ever after.
Written by Heather Louise Trevelyan on Monday 12th April 2010 aged 5 and 8 months.
Spring Summer Autumn Winter
All about Spring
S is for the sun shining in the sky
P is for poppy pink and waking up
R is for rows of roses
I like cherry blossom all nice and pink
N is for nightingales singing in the trees
G is for people playing in the garden
That is what spring in about
All about Summer
S is for sunflowers growing in the sun
U is for us injoying the weather
M is for me watching the sun
M is for Matthew playing in the garden
E is for eating outside together
R is for going riding on our bikes.
Thats what Summer is all about
All about Autumn
A is for animals eating leaves
U is for umbrellas in the rain
T is for trees losing leaves
U is for umbrellas going up and down
M is for many leaves falling off trees
N is for navy blue raindrops
Thats what Autumn is all about
All about Winter
W is for wooly clothes to keep you warm
I is for iscicles everywhere
N is for night time coming early
T is for trees covered with snow
E is for everybody playing in the snow
R is for roads being closed because of the snow
Thats what winter is all about
Proud, me, yes!
Monday, April 12, 2010
House Hunting
Next year we are hoping to move house, maybe even sooner if the market picks up. We have had the house valued and know we have a bit of work to do before it is market ready, we've set our budget and even started looking to see what is about.
We went to see the first house on Saturday, we had the kids with us and if you think moving is stressful, how about just looking! We had warned the children they weren't to touch and that they had to remember that this was where somebody lived, even reminding them that at some point people would be looking at our house and they wouldn't want their things messed about with.
The house was lovely, although not right for us. The children loved the big bedrooms and Heather, having found a pink one declared it would be hers! It took an absolute age to look around as most of the time our attention was diverted by one of the littlies looking as if they may do something.
It occurred to me over lunch that although we had talked to the children about moving we hadn't actually asked them what they wanted from a new house, after all they are going to be living there! So I asked! Heather was quite straightforward, she wanted a big pink bedroom, a big garden and a playroom and a toilet. Think we should be able to manage that. Matthew was more complicated;
Lightening McQueen bedroom Check
Playroom with a table to put railway track on check
Big garden with swing and slide check
orange tunnel so he can get to his bedroom, hmm slight problem there. Maybe we have been visiting one too many play centres, still the estate agent did say they like a challenge...
We went to see the first house on Saturday, we had the kids with us and if you think moving is stressful, how about just looking! We had warned the children they weren't to touch and that they had to remember that this was where somebody lived, even reminding them that at some point people would be looking at our house and they wouldn't want their things messed about with.
The house was lovely, although not right for us. The children loved the big bedrooms and Heather, having found a pink one declared it would be hers! It took an absolute age to look around as most of the time our attention was diverted by one of the littlies looking as if they may do something.
It occurred to me over lunch that although we had talked to the children about moving we hadn't actually asked them what they wanted from a new house, after all they are going to be living there! So I asked! Heather was quite straightforward, she wanted a big pink bedroom, a big garden and a playroom and a toilet. Think we should be able to manage that. Matthew was more complicated;
Lightening McQueen bedroom Check
Playroom with a table to put railway track on check
Big garden with swing and slide check
orange tunnel so he can get to his bedroom, hmm slight problem there. Maybe we have been visiting one too many play centres, still the estate agent did say they like a challenge...
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